Political correctness and sibling rivalry get a decent working over in Stay Woke, the brainchild of Aran Thangaratnam. Sai (Kaivu Suvarna) is a 25-year-old of Sri Lankan origin who is involved in medical research. He and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kate (Rose Adams), a pharmacist, are invited by his older brother Niv (Dushan Philips) to join him and…
The Women, by Clare Boothe Luce is a tart comic satire written in 1936. Its famous gimmick is that only women feature in the casting – in the original play some 130 roles – and is a play concerned with the indulged class of the Manhattan rich and their servants, in their homes/apartments/beauty parlours, and…
Multi-award winning indigenous American author Louise Erdrich has set her new novel The Mighty Red in the heartlands of the Ojibwe people (Erdrich herself is a member of the Turtle Band, a tribe of the Ojibwe). Set on the banks of the Red River in North Dakota, country used for growing sugarbeet but also subject…
Desire, loss and madness are in the spotlight in the Australian premiere of Right Now. This comedic drama asks the question: what’s real and what is imagined? Quebecois playwright Catherine-Anne Toupin wrote the play, and Chris Campbell translated it from the French. Alice (Christina O’Neill) is a beautiful young woman. She’s been married for three…
The Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series once more brings out the “big guns” with an exhibition featuring over 400 works from the personal collection of Catherine the Great. Gathered over a 34-year period, Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great represents the foundation of the Hermitage’s collection and includes outstanding works from artists…
Writer and director Ava DuVernay has chosen an artistic interpretation of the work of Isabel Wilkerson in Origin. The film was inspired by Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. At the start of the film, Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) doesn’t know it, but she’s about to lose the two most important people in her…
Whether it has become an annual pilgrimage or if you are seeing it for the first time, The Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol is an outstanding, heartfelt production. Each year, the starring role goes to a different actor. Now it is Erik Thompson who plays Ebenezer Scrooge with distinction. In the first Australian showing two…
The fun starts even before you enter the heated Big Top, which is located opposite Westfield Fountain Gate in Narre Warren. Snow is falling immediately outside, courtesy of a snow making machine. FROSTED – A Winter Spectacular is a magical experience for the littlies and for the parents and grandparents who watch their small faces…
Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and returns to form, with the biting satire, The Banshees of Inisherin. Although many liked his last film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, I personally didn’t. I think the cultural disconnect between America and Europe let it down. But now, back in familiar territory, he brings…
Young Jewish comedian Michael Shafar relates stories about his life as they pertain to his girlfriend of nine years, Amanda, and his parents. They include a particularly lame “dad joke” that keeps haunting him and various body parts of his that his mother has kept. His grandmother also isn’t spared his opprobrium – all these…
